Kentucky voters will decide Nov. 3 whether to limit when governors can grant pardons and commute sentences, a proposal Republican state Sen. Chris McDaniel is promoting at stops across the state this week. The amendment would prohibit governors from issuing pardons or sentence commutations beginning 60 days before an election and continuing until their successors are inaugurated in December. McDaniel, who represents Ryland Heights, has pushed for the change for seven years. The legislature approved it earlier this year, sending the constitutional question to voters. McDaniel said he planned to discuss the measure in Corbin, Somerset and Bowling Green. No issue committees had registered to campaign for or against it, though McDaniel said a banner promoting the amendment was paid for by him. He described the proposal as a way to give voters more accountability over candidates who use the pardon power and said he had encountered support across party lines. The effort gained momentum after former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin issued a series of controversial pardons in the weeks after losing the 2019 election to Democrat Andy Beshear. Among those whose sentences Bevin changed were people convicted of serious crimes, including rape, murder and child abuse. McDaniel has pointed to Bevin’s reduction of Gregory Wilson’s sentence as a particularly troubling example. Wilson was sentenced to death after his 1988 conviction for kidnapping, raping and killing Deborah Pooley in Covington. He later became eligible for parole in 2024, but the Kentucky Parole Board determined he must serve the rest of his life in prison. McDaniel said Joe Heil, who had employed Pooley, became an advocate for the amendment after attending a parole hearing. Beshear’s office has argued that changing the constitution is not the answer. In June, spokesperson Scottie Ellis said Bevin had abused the pardon power, but said the remedy should be electing responsible governors rather than restricting the office’s authority. McDaniel argues that the limits are needed regardless of which party holds the governor’s office, saying governors have issued pardons in ways that lack public scrutiny. The amendment would alter the state constitution, which has been in place for more than a century. Kentucky voters have rejected several proposed constitutional changes in recent years, including measures in 2022 concerning legislative special sessions and abortion rights, and a 2024 proposal to allow public funding for private schools. Voters did approve a 2024 amendment further barring non-U.S. citizens from voting in state elections; it passed with 64% support.